Waiting in the End
by Natsumi Wakabe
Summary: Sometimes, the hardest thing for any parent is waiting. For Arathorn, the wait for his son has been long since his departure. Some thoughts as his son Aragorn joins him in the lands of the dead. (Yes, I have taken liberties with the history and the afterlife). Please R&R!


_Disclaimer: Wakabe Writing Firm does not own Lord of the Rings._

_A/N: Sorry for the long wait for anything. Computers are still down, so we borrowed this one. Hope you enjoy! - The Wakabe Writing Firm_

**Many years has it been, since last I saw you. **

When you were but a child, one that I had loved deeply and freely, back in a land of happiness and all the harrowings of life in the Wild and the Angle. Back when you had but one name, a name that I had bestowed upon you when you were born to the woman I loved. Was it really so long ago, more than a century that has seperated us? How I have mourned the loss of the oppurtunity to watch you grow, yet I knew that somehow, you would be destined for something greater than what I had done. But to have accomplished all that you have in but one life, where elves had needed two; it amazes me.

**Had I known what was to be, I would have never left you.**

It was not something that I wished to do; to leave you and your mother behind, in a world growing ever darker. But then again, no one can ever really know what the future holds in store. Certainly, I knew that every time I rode out, there was always the possibility of never seeing you again. I had always felt that dread and fear grip my heart every time I kissed you on the head goodbye, and I saw that same fear reflected in my wife's eyes. But I was a ranger of the north. I had a duty to all who lived in the free realms, a duty that often took me from you. We did many good things, protected those who could not do so themselves, and often found small, rare gems of kindness and warmth and love in those we sought to protect. But of course, you know this, my son, don't you.

**In the end, I suppose it was all for the best.**

Was it destined for me, to die on that patrol, riding through the woods with my elven kin? Was it destined for them to see me fall, and to then feel the need to take you in, to appease their guilt over my death? I like to think so. I would rather think that fate had intervened with my demise, so that you would grow up to become the man that I meet now, in this place that elves cannot enter. Perhaps if I had lived, you would not have become the king that I stand before now. Perhaps you would have been something better; or maybe worse.

**The life you lived without me, I watched.**

How could I not? I had left you so long, a babe in my wife's arms, a small precious bundle of joy that I had sung to at night. You were such a joy, a treasure that put all other treasures to shame, even the one that I had once worn on my own finger, that was passed on to you. I could never stop watching. I worried over you, in ways others would have said was unmanly. But how could I not? I was not there to teach you to hunt. You did not get the chance to grow up among your kin in the north. The integration was not as smooth as my own had been, and I longed to be there with you and make it so much easier for you.

**Heart strong and mind sound, you survived where others had died.**

You were strong in ways that I could not help but marvel at. I had watched you come against Death itself time and again, seen you in its cold embrace, but still you did not let it take you. I watched you survive tortures that would have broken others and survive the Wilds like no other I had ever known of, not even the elves. You had survived attempts of the enemy, outwitted the smartest of them all in battles that should have been your end, and everything in between. Was it any wonder that I was proud of you, as I watched you, unseen, even as I worried and fretted over every close call, every wound that brought you all the closer to the end.

**The burdens you have borne have been heavy.**

But you no longer need to carry them. Here, there is no kingdom for you to run. There is no need to fret over the finances of a kingdom rebuilding. You do not need to care for the dying, nor do you have any need for athelas. You can lay your worries to rest here, and have the freedom that only those no longer tied to Arda have.

**Love is what my heart knows as I gaze upon you.**

A love that has never wavered in the time lost from you. Though I cherish the memories of you in my arms, I cannot help but despair over the time I did lose. However, that will not stop me from trying to reforge a bond lost in the shot of an arrow.

**Of my life lost, I wonder what you have to say.**

Will you be angry at me for having left you? Will you care? Did you hate that I was not there to help you gain the acceptance of the rangers? Do you feel deprived somehow, despite the fact that the elven lord of Imladris made you his son in my place? Did you ever wonder about me? Did you listen to the stories the men told of me and try to create me in your mind? Did you ask your elven brothers about me? Did you wonder? Did you hear my voice in the wind when I called to you? Did you remember me?

**A long time have I waited for this meeting.**

Because now, my questions can be answered. Now, I can talk to you, listen to your stories, and really see who you, my most precious and only child, have become. I now have a chance to know you, as I was denied in life. Now, I can tell you things that no one else could have known about me. And I can learn about you.

**Father to a man called a King, but only now do I have the chance to call you my own.**

And all I can do is smile as you come to me, your body no longer torn by a life long lived, but as perfect as you were in your prime. You came to us of your own will. You have come to join your forefathers, and me. And though there is a sadness in your coming here, there is also great joy. For here, we can remove the barriers of time and start anew our bond. Here, we can be father and son. Here, we can let go of past sorrows and regrets and find something more in what others claim to be the final journey, but is not. So I welcome you, Elessar Telcontar, King of the Reunited Lands, fosterling of Lord Elrond of Rivendell, and Chiefton of the Dunedan. I welcome you Aragorn. My son, welcome to a new adventure.


End file.
